TECHNOLOGY AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN SIMULTANEOUS INTERPRETING: A MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH

Abstract

The insertion of technology in simultaneous interpreting has recently raised much controversy among, inter alia, practitioners, researchers and end-service users. Precipitous developments especially in Artificial Intelligence can affect not only the façade but also the core of the profession. The world's feverish propaganda for the inevitability of technological change together with the epidemic panic from machine IQ to reach 10,000 (while Einstein's was 150) have given impetus for this research to investigate the past and present of using technology in simultaneous interpreting and explore the challenges and opportunities for collaboration between the human and the machine from a multidisciplinary perspective. It is a qualitative study which uses description, comparison, and interpretation as research methods to analyse how the human and the machine react to the process of simultaneous interpreting and assess their performance and role. It concludes that there is not much prospect that machines can replace the human interpreter at least in the near future, and that technological developments should be directed to serve the field and human interpreters in a constructive way.